Chapter 190: Jack vs Jack!
["My daughter, she's been born!!!"]
["My little Jack~~~"]
["As expected of the Fate series, you can't go without top-tier 'self-kill' scenes!"]
["Umu, let me count—Shirou vs Archer, Heracles vs Heracles, and here we have Jack vs Jack."]
["LoL, I'm pretty sure if Artoria met her younger self before becoming King Arthur, she'd probably kill herself too, just like Archer."]
...
[System: 'The Lolicon' has sent 200 Saint Quartz!]
[Message: Guhehehe, little Jack is so cute~~~ Sniff sniff~~~ Soft soft~~~]
[System: 'Ally of Justice' has sent 300 Saint Quartz!]
[Message: Livestream is not a lawless zone, get the fuck outta here, Blackbeard up there!]
...
In the thick fog, two figures entangled continuously in the street overflowing with the aura of death.
"Clang, clang——————!!!"
White-haired little girl Jack nimbly knocked away two butcher knives thrown at her.
Then she stepped on a long-rusted lamppost and dashed forward to slash fiercely!
The man in the suit immediately spun around and threw another small knife, simultaneously taking off his black coat and hurling it.
"Whoosh——————!!!"
The black coat was slashed into pieces in the blink of an eye!
However, what appeared in front of little girl Jack was a werewolf covered in pitch-black fur!!!
"Auuu!!!"
The werewolf raised its head and howled, immediately swiping its claws at little Jack!!!
"That'll hurt us, you know, and that's not very nice!"
Little girl Jack drew her dagger, blocked the werewolf's attack, and instantly vanished into the mist.
"Sniff sniff!!!"
The werewolf started sniffing repeatedly, trying to track little girl Jack's scent.
"You better hit~~~"
The dagger in the white-haired little Jack's hand flashed a cold light, slicing clean through the werewolf's neck artery!!!
"Auuuu——————!!!"
The werewolf's neck was torn open, blood gushed out like a fountain!
It roared in madness, reaching out to grab little girl Jack to rip her into shreds!!!
But there was no sensation in its hands—when it looked again, little girl Jack had already vanished.
"Whoosh————————!!!"
A small dagger pierced through the werewolf's body from a completely unexpected angle.
The werewolf staggered and collapsed, slowly reverting into a human man.
"Ehh, broke down so fast?"
Little girl Jack stepped closer, intending to check the man's condition.
"BOOM——————!!!"
Suddenly, the man's body exploded!
"Cough cough…"
Caught in the blast, little girl Jack quickly covered her mouth to escape the scene, but her legs were immediately bound by ropes and she was hung upside down on an old railing.
"You sneaky!!!"
Little girl Jack furiously shouted at the figure in front of her.
"Sorry, though we're both Jack the Ripper, I've existed here far longer than you."
The man slowly took form again, his body once more reconstructed from the dense fog.
Before long, he regained the same gentlemanly appearance as before.
"It seems although you're Jack the Ripper, you're not truly the original Jack the Ripper—yet you were still able to use that name to become a Heroic Spirit."
The man looked both bewildered and excited.
"You're talking too much, we don't understand a thing!!!"
White-haired little girl Jack kept struggling, trying to use her dagger to cut the rope binding her.
"Maybe you'll understand if I put it this way?"
The man's body gradually shrank down, eventually transforming into a white-haired little girl.
"You... you're part of us too?!"
Little girl Jack, still hanging upside down, asked in shock.
"Rather than 'part of', it's more accurate to say this is just one of my forms."
That "little girl Jack" pulled out an identical dagger, then held it up next to her "self" who was still hanging.
"As long as I want to become a child, I'll definitely turn into this form. And I even start wanting to dissect things… Seems like I've been influenced by you, huh?"
Wearing a loose outfit that barely covered anything, the white-haired "little girl Jack" shrugged.
"In every sense, this is honestly pretty bad."
"Hmph, you're awful! Why would you turn into our form!!!"
The hanging little girl Jack suddenly mustered her strength and headbutted her "self" in front of her.
"BONK!!!"
"Uwaa!!!"
Both little girl Jacks cried out in pain simultaneously.
"Seriously, we're Jack the Ripper, and we're doing childish stuff like this? Could it be my true self is really just a kid?!"
The "little girl Jack" in the loose outfit sat down on the ground, holding her reddened forehead, speaking in frustration.
"Uaaaahhh!!!"
Suddenly, a bolt of green lightning struck down from the sky!
The "little girl Jack" sitting on the ground immediately rolled to dodge.
Right after, Frankenstein appeared before her, filled with rage.
"All charged up already?"
The "little girl Jack" no longer had time to worry about her throbbing forehead and immediately rushed to engage Frankenstein in battle.
"Senpai, over here!!!"
Following the source of the lightning, Mash quickly led Ethan to Jack Berserker's location.
"Mama, we're here!!!"
From afar, they heard little girl Jack calling out.
Looking closely, they saw she was hanging upside down from a railing.
Mash immediately ran over to untie the rope, but realized the rope was like a long black snake, coiled so tightly it couldn't be undone easily.
"Mama, hand me my dagger."
Ethan noticed the dagger on the ground, picked it up, and handed it to little girl Jack.
Even with her hands tied behind her back, the moment she grabbed the dagger, little girl Jack instantly cut through the rope in a flash!
Now freed, little girl Jack once again began searching for her opponent in the thick fog.
"This time, we absolutely have to dissect him from behind!"
With that, little girl Jack immediately dashed back into the battlefield.
"Senpai, let's follow her quickly too!"
Ethan nodded, and together with Mash, they continued forward.
They hadn't gone far before the sounds of battle echoed right above them.
"Uhh uhh uhh!!!"
Bolts of green lightning kept bursting in the air, the electrical surges gradually dispersing the surrounding fog.
There they saw Frankenstein fiercely clashing with another "little girl Jack"!
That "little girl Jack" also possessed agile footwork, leaping high by bouncing off the building levels.
Frankenstein pursued closely behind, channeling magical energy to unleash continuous lightning attacks!
"Zap, zap, zap——————!!!"
Several bolts of lightning forced the "little girl Jack" moving along the eaves on both sides to abruptly change direction and escape.
Left with no choice, the opponent stepped onto the rooftop, trying to flee another way.
"Got you!"
Suddenly, another identical Little girl Jack emerged from the black mist.
"This time, we absolutely won't let you escape!"
The little girl radiated an enormous amount of magical energy, and her once green eyes now burned a vivid red.
— Not good!!!
The other "Little girl Jack" immediately tried to dispel her transformation—But it was already too late!
"We're gonna get all the malignant stuff out! That means carving it out!"
All she could see were two terrifying red lights approaching.
"The misty city... our hell starts here.It's neither the end nor beginning.It's just a cycle of meaningless dismembering.—Maria the Ripper!!!"
Arms, torso, legs, chest...
Each attack came with sharp, stabbing pain that exploded through her body.
With every swing of the sharp daggers, blood spurted out in a crimson spray!!!
And then—two final daggers pierced through her heart from the chest.
She could feel her life force being completely drained from her body.
"So that's how it is… That's the Noble Phantasm of that Jack, huh…"
The "Little girl Jack" murmured to herself.
She plummeted from a great height, her blood painting the streets of London like a blooming flower.
By the time Ethan and Mash arrived, their opponent was no longer moving.
"Mama, Mama, did we do it right?"
The white-haired Little girl Jack jumped down from the rooftop and ran happily toward Ethan.
She looked like a child expecting praise.
"'Mama'? Why is this Assassin calling Senpai 'Mama'?!"
Mash couldn't understand why Little girl Jack kept calling Ethan "Mama."
"I remember the doctor once said that newborn chicks tend to view the first person they see as their mother. Could this young lady be the same?"
Mash started forming a completely misguided theory, and Ethan couldn't even be bothered to explain.
He just quietly reached out and patted Little girl Jack's head.
"Hehe, Mama praised us!"
"Uhh uhhh!!!"
Suddenly, Frankenstein let out a wary sound. She raised her mace, aiming straight ahead!
"Oh my, so this is what it feels like to be the victim... I must say, it's quite a novel experience."
Out from the black mist, the noble-looking man stepped forth once again.
"Senpai, watch out!!!"
Mash instantly raised her shield to defend them.
Ethan glanced around— The dismembered body of the "Little girl Jack" from before was gone.
Even the blood had completely vanished.
"A miss...? No way—we definitely dissected him!"
White-haired Little girl Jack gripped her dagger tightly, crouching low in preparation to strike again.
"Please, wait a moment!"
Suddenly, the noble-looking man raised his hand.
"There's no need for us to fight, is there?"
"Oh? That's not what you said when we first met."
Ethan replied without hesitation.
"Of course. To those who get lost in London's mist, I've always taken killing them very seriously."
His tone didn't waver in the slightest—like he was simply talking about his day job.
"Why do something so cruel?"
Mash couldn't hold back and demanded.
"Why?"
The man gave a faint smile.
"Because I'm someone who doesn't even know his real name. All I know is that my alias is 'Jack the Ripper'. And the only way I can understand who I am—is by killing those who wander into the fog. But now, things are different…"
His eyes turned to the Little girl Jack, who was steadily searching for a gap to assassinate him.
"Another Jack the Ripper has been summoned. If I can understand her, I might finally understand what it means to be Jack the Ripper."
"Mama, he's talking too much again. Can we go ahead and dissect him now?"
Little girl Jack turned to Ethan.
"Sorry, hold it in for now."
Ethan's words made Little girl Jack visibly deflate, but she still nodded obediently.
"We're really not happy about this, But since Mama says so..."
Seeing Ethan's action, the man immediately removed his hat and bowed politely toward him.
"Thank you for so quickly grasping my intent, Master from an unknown land."
"So you intend to call a truce with us?"
"Precisely. I no longer need to continue hunting in this mist, trying to recall who I truly am… Besides, you've already realized it, haven't you?"
The man adjusted his pristine, spotless clothing.
"Within this mist… I am immortal."
"..."
Ethan said nothing.
In truth, ever since Frankenstein's Noble Phantasm failed to harm him, Ethan had already begun to suspect this.
By all logic, taking a full-on Noble Phantasm from Fran should have left anyone mangled or worse—certainly not perfectly unscathed.
This Berserker Jack had taken multiple hits from Little girl Jack, even while in the form of a young girl—and still withstood another full-blown NP, yet remained unharmed.
It could only mean one thing:
He is truly immortal...
"It seems my immortality is connected to this land… and the dense fog surrounding it."
Berserker Jack glanced around the silent, misty streets, and finally fixed his eyes on Ethan.
"So? Can you accept my proposal?"
"Even if what you say is true, I will never hand Jack over to you."
Ethan stepped protectively in front of Little girl Jack.
So what if he was immortal in the fog? As long as they left this area, he would lose his advantage.
"Hand her over?"
The man looked momentarily surprised—then laughed softly and shook his head.
"No. I want to join your team."
"You want to join us?"
Mash couldn't believe her ears.
"Only by staying close to her, observing every aspect of the girl who represents 'another side' of Jack the Ripper, can I arrive at a proper conclusion… and truly understand who Jack the Ripper is."
The man spoke slowly and deliberately.
"Besides, I know far more about this city than you do.If I'm not mistaken, you're in desperate need of information right now, aren't you?I can also fight alongside you. Think of it as a mutually beneficial agreement."
"Senpai…"
Mash turned to look at Ethan, waiting for his decision.
Everything the man said seemed to check out.
This Berserker Jack, as he claimed, only sought to understand himself—his true identity.
If they allowed him to join, from a combat standpoint, he was an extremely powerful Servant.
His skill, "Thousand Faces," could also prove useful in gathering intel.
And when you don't know what decision to make… just go with the Berserker.
Especially if it's a Berserker who can actually hold a conversation.
"Alright. I accept your offer."
"I'm deeply grateful."
Berserker Jack gave Ethan a slight nod of appreciation.
"You've risked your lives to travel through this treacherous fog… it seems you have a reason—one you cannot ignore—for heading deeper."
He bent down slightly, bowing like a true noble.
"Then please, allow me to guide the way."